Reversing decades of CRM development and leaving it where the capt is king or a ground controller.... Give it a break people. Its hardly happening soon and is no where clear cut as some people make it out to be. Aviation is currently very very safe. Stuff like this will see a increase in incidents.

When the robot can land in 35kt crosswinds following a heavy that went high on the glide slope and go around due to wind shear and perform a flawless pattern back again to land in those conditions call me.

Until then I'm getting sick of chicken little crowing about the end of humans in the cockpit. My kid could land a straight in sim with no wind. Big deal.

The real problem with the next level of automation is it will lower pilot salaries, not eliminate them.

I bet not!!

So it can land like any other cat3 capable autopilot out there. Can it put the plane in a position to make that autoland? These things make big headlines but the simple fact is automation is still no where near as capable at making decisions as the human brain.

Stick and rudder is one aspect. Judgement and decision making skills are another.

Agreed, even then, I still believe stick and rudder skills are important. Anyone who scoffs at them and say they aren't should not be a pilot. Complacency kills, look at that Korean who plunged the 777 into the SFO sea wall. Autopilot isn't doing what you want it to do? Click it off and hand fly it.

Yeah I didn't mean to imply otherwise. Stick and rudder or otherwise known as "pilot sh1t", be it VFR or IFR stick and rudder skills, are the base of the pilot flying skills.

Just like fitness is the base for most athletics. In my bike racing days if you didn't have base fitness you wouldn't be fast, your handeling skills would suck and you can't think and make good decisions while turning your lungs inside out. Stick and rudder skills are the same. Don't have that the rest suffers.

This is why I think it's more likely to see one human/one robot vs. total automation with no pilot. One compliments the other.

FOs??? They'll definitely chop the captains first. A) FOs are cheaper, and B) no self respecting robot pilot will do the walk around.

;D

(*slow clap*)

This is beautiful...